Chinese citizen targeted in Karachi blast

KARACHI: A Chinese engineer and his driver were injured in a bomb blast on Monday morning outside Pakistan Steel Town.

The two men were injured when a roadside bomb exploded at 9.30am as their van passed through one of the city’s industrial quarters. The police and paramilitary forces cordoned off the area to collect evidences from the site of the attack.

A banned militant group, Jamaatul Ahrar, claimed the responsibility for the attack.

SSP Anwar said that pamphlets with threats written on them were recovered from the site. The note denounced “foreign control over Sindh’s natural resources”.

“China, a rising global power, is an accomplice of the Punjabi establishment in looting Sindh’s resources. Therefore, we accept the responsibility for the attack on a Chinese engineer in Gulshan-i-Hadeed. We want to make it clear to China that we will oppose every anti-Sindh project including the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC),” the note said.

Hundreds of Chinese workers are currently working all over Pakistan on various development projects including the CPEC.

In August 2015, the Sindh police claimed to have chalked out a comprehensive security plan for Chinese citizens visiting Karachi and other parts of the province for CPEC-related projects.